


Listen to the Fireplace Roar

by WhiteravenGreywolf



Series: Chrisby Modern AU [2]
Category: Lovecraft Country (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Family Bonding, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Sisters, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:49:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27697190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteravenGreywolf/pseuds/WhiteravenGreywolf
Summary: After a storm knocks out the electricity at Ruby's place, Christina agrees to take her in for the weekend. And Leti. Leti's there too, and she really wants to know what's in Christina's basement...
Relationships: Ruby Baptiste/Christina Braithwhite
Series: Chrisby Modern AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025580
Comments: 17
Kudos: 103





	Listen to the Fireplace Roar

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! The sequel one-shot nobody asked for but everyone is happy about is here!  
> A while back when I posted "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", whitley asked if I would write a sequel in which Leti is being super annoying while Ruby and Chris are on a date. I said I'd thought about it, but ultimately, I couldn't find any good ideas for it. But the idea came back around to this story where the three of them are spending the weekend at Christina's place and Leti is being the worst...  
> Tomorrow I'll be posting the first part of two for a story called "Life Could Be a Dream". It's gonna be a trip of a story, trust me.  
> Anyway, as usual, I hope you'll enjoy, and I'm off to write some more!

Christina shivered awake. January had not been kind so far, but this Saturday morning was meaner than most. Light struggled through the frosted windows of her bedroom. She brought her knees to her chest, bundling tighter under the sheets. Now that she was awake, she wanted to get out of bed and be productive. But the thought of stepping out of the warm blankets was enough to send more shivers down her spine. There had to have been heavy snowfall the night before.

  
She was pulled out of her debate when her phone vibrated on the vanity. She'd half a mind to let it ring but there was only one person who would call her these days, and it wouldn't do to let her girlfriend's call go to voicemail. She pulled herself out of bed, the cold morning air sending goosebumps over her arms. She reached for the phone first and for a sweater second.

  
"Hey, I thought you'd be up," Ruby said.

  
Christina checked the time and saw that it was a bit too early to be Ruby's usual rising time.

  
"What's going on?"

  
Ruby sighed. Christina placed the phone on speaker on the vanity then put on the sweater while she listened.

  
"I hate to ask you but..."

  
"She's super rich, it's not like it's going to be a problem!" Leti's voice shouted from behind Ruby.

  
"There was a power surge. The whole block is out, apparently, some snow toppled an electric pole. So the fridge is out, the heater is out too, and there's only so much safe heat you can get from the oven."

  
Christina had pulled her hair out of her sweater and picked up her phone. She checked the heater in her bedroom but it was still functioning. She turned the nob one setting higher.

  
"Anyway," Ruby continued, "could we stay at your place until they fix the electricity? It might take the weekend and I'd rather not die of hypothermia if I can avoid it."

  
"Yeah, of course," Christina said as she walked out of her bedroom and went downstairs to check the radiators in the living room. The ground floor was even colder. "Give me half an hour and I'll come and pick you up."

  
"The roads are still snowed in, it's too dangerous," Ruby replied.

  
Christina checked through her window. It seemed the snow had stopped falling and the street in front of her house had already been cleared.

  
"Where are you now?" Christina asked.

  
"We took refuge in a Starbucks with a few neighbors. I'll call you when the road's clear, all right?"

  
"You're sure?"

  
"Yeah. They know what's up, they won't kick us out for a few hours."

  
"Okay. I'll warm you up when you get here."

  
There was a pause then a slight chuckle.

  
"Leti heard you and she's disgusted."

  
For a moment, Christina had forgotten that if the apartment was inhospitable, then Leti would have to stay with her too. Her relationship with the teenager had improved in the past few months, but that didn't mean Christina wanted to spend the entire weekend around her, or vice-versa.

  
"Tell her I'm gonna prepare the room furthest from my bedroom and that the walls here are not paper thin."

  
"I don't care, you two are disgusting," Leti shouted.

  
"I'll see you soon," Ruby sighed.

  
"Stay safe."

  
Ruby hung up and Christina shivered. She decided she had the time for a very warm shower and went back upstairs.

* * *

Two hours later Christina was driving the sisters back to her house. Although she was prone to driving swiftly, she slowed down so as not to splash dirty slosh on the people, mostly children, wandering the cold streets. She parked the car in front of the garage, as she had a feeling that she was going to have to go grocery shopping soon enough.

  
Ruby was used to the house by then, having spent many nights and weekends there. She left her heavy coat on the hanger, welcoming the warmth of the room. Leti, however, had never been to Christina's house before. As she stepped in, she was gobsmacked by the size of the home. She gasped and didn't even bother to take off her shoes as she ran from room to room.

  
"Have you seen the size of this TV! There are so many books! What the fuck is this sci-fi coffee machine! You let us stay in our tiny apartment when we could have been living the high-life in here this whole time!"

  
"Leti..."

  
Letitia ignored her sister's warning and continued to explore the ground floor. However, her exploration came to a stop when she found a locked door.

  
"What's in here?" she asked.

  
"The basement. And before you ask, it's off-limits."

  
"Seriously?"

  
"Leti, I'm not carrying your bag," Ruby complained as she followed Christina to the staircase.

  
Leti grumbled but went to pick up her bag by the door. She finally remembered to take off her coat and hung it before following the two adults up the stairs. Christina was waiting for her there.

  
"My bedroom's over there, just in case."

  
"Trust me, I will not be going anywhere near it," Leti said.

  
"I gave you this room," Christina said, leading Leti to the other side of the hall.

  
She opened the bedroom and Leti stepped inside. It was a large guest room with jade-colored walls. A massive bed sat against the wall, with a huge painting of a ruined castle on a cliff above it. There was an empty wardrobe against one wall, and a door leading to a private bathroom in the other.

  
"Holy shit! You could fit four times my bedroom in here!"

  
Leti dropped her bag by the door and jumped onto the bed.

  
"I'm glad you like it," Christina said before walking away, leaving the teenager alone to roll around in the cold bed.

  
Ruby had left the master bedroom and crossed the hall. When Christina turned around, Ruby caught a glimpse of her sister in the bedroom and rolled her eyes.

  
"Lucky her I never knew what to do with that room, or else she would have to sleep on the couch," Christina said.

  
"You're really okay with us spending the weekend here?"

  
Christina wrapped her arms around Ruby.

  
"I will never mind having you around. And I'm not heartless to the point of letting your sister sleep in an unheated apartment in the middle of winter."

  
"I heard that," Leti shouted from the bed.

  
"And besides, if it's the price to pay to have you warming my bed tonight..."

  
Christina kissed Ruby, who kissed her back with a smile. They had to break apart when they heard Leti's disgusted noises behind them.

  
"Please stop sucking faces beside my door!"

  
Ruby rolled her eyes.

  
"It's going to be a long weekend..."

* * *

After lunch, they came to an agreement that they needed to go grocery shopping if they were to survive the weekend all together in the same house. Christina agreed to drive, and Leti wanted to stay home, but Ruby refused.

  
"I know you. If we leave you here alone you'll find a way to break into somewhere you're not supposed to be. You're coming with us."

  
Leti was outraged, appalled, hurt that her sister didn't trust her, but no matter how much she complained about the cold temperature outside, she was eventually dragged out of the house. She sat in the back as Christina carefully navigated the frozen city. In the passenger seat, Ruby turned up the heat and struggled with the dial of the radio. It seemed the snow was blocking quite a few channels from emitting properly. Eventually, they stumbled on a news channel that managed to come through somewhat properly.

  
"... that a bigger storm should hit Cook county and it's surrounding this evening. Authorities are currently still clearing the roads after last night's snowstorm..."

  
Ruby and Christina shared a glance.

  
"I have to go and do a few things, in case we get stuck," Christina said. "Can you handle the groceries? I'll come back to pick you up."

  
"Yeah, we've got this," Ruby said.

  
Leti vaguely hummed from the backseat. Christina parked in front of the supermarket but before Ruby could step out, the blonde pulled her wallet out of her pocket and handed her credit card to Ruby.

  
"Here, for the groceries."

  
Ruby was about to protest, but Leti reached between the seats and took the card before stepping out.

  
"Will do ma'am, thank you."

  
"Leti!"

  
But the teenager was already out, the credit card stuffed in her jacket pocket.

  
"I'm not using it," Ruby said.

  
"Okay," Christina replied. "Just make sure Letitia doesn't lose it, I don't want to have to order another one."

  
Christina kissed her quickly before Ruby stepped out. When she drove off, Ruby turned to Leti.

  
"We're not using the card."

  
"Oh come on! She's swimming in money, she can definitely pay for the food."

  
"She's already nice enough to let us stay, we're not using her money to buy food too."

  
Leti rolled her eyes as she began making her way into the supermarket.

  
"Mama always said marrying rich was marrying smart."

  
"We've been dating for five months," Ruby pointed out.

  
Leti pulled a shopping cart from the racks and pushed it into the first aisle.

  
"So what? She clearly doesn't care that you're spending her money, she didn't hesitate to let you stay. You got her wrapped around your finger."

  
Ruby knew as much, she knew the blonde would do anything for her. But that didn't mean she would let Christina take away her financial freedom.

  
"We're not using the card, and that's final."

  
"Okay," Leti said with a vague shrug as she dumped a box of muffins into the cart.

  
The entire trip reminded Ruby of why her mother forbade them from going grocery shopping with her. Every time she had her back turned to the cart, Leti dumped something inside. And it was never vegetables she sneaked in. From time to time, Ruby had her sister put the bag of chips or bottle of soda back on the shelf. Then, Leti developed a technique of dumping multiple things at once, so that Ruby wouldn't be able to see everything all, and some bag of candies or box of cookies slipped through the cracks.

  
"Do you know what's in the basement?" Leti asked as she pushed the heavy cart around.

  
"I don't," Ruby said as she looked through shelves of tomato pastes.

  
"And you don't think this is even slightly suspicious?"

  
Ruby rolled her eyes.

  
"She's probably just storing books down there."

  
"Or she's hiding a dead body or two. And she's clearing them out right now in case there's a power surge and her icebox fails."

  
Ruby turned to look at her sister.

  
"I thought you were over the whole 'ice witch' thing."

  
"I am, kinda, but this whole basement business is just super weird."

  
Ruby rolled her eyes.

  
"If you really want to know, just as her about it."

  
"Like she's ever going to tell me."

  
When they reached the register, Ruby realized that Leti had placed in a great many more articles than she'd thought. When the final number was rung, she looked at her sister who smiled innocently at her. There was no choice but to use Christina's card, or else Ruby would have blown through their food money for the month.

  
When they left the supermarket, Christina was waiting in the parking for them. Together they loaded the car with all the grocery bags. Christina was surprised by how many there were.

  
"I didn't think we'd need so much food for a weekend."

  
"I see you've never had to feed multiple people," Leti said as she handed Christina's card back to the blonde.

  
Leti stepped into the car and Ruby sighed.

  
"Sorry, I tried to limit her but you basically handed her a no-limit credit card."

  
Christina shrugged.

  
"It's alright. You can take some with you home."

* * *

The groceries were quickly brought into the house and Christina parked the car in the garage for the night. She'd already had to clear the snow off of it that morning, she would rather not have to do it again the next morning. When she walked inside, Leti was seating on the couch in the living room, channel surfing, while Ruby was finishing shelving the groceries.

  
"I don't think my kitchen cabinets have ever been this full," Christina said as she took one of the last few bags and went about the room, struggling to find a space for a large bag of M&M's.

  
"That's what you get for welcoming a teenager," Ruby said with a chuckle.

  
Christina folded the paper bag then kissed Ruby's cheek.

  
"I'm going to start the fireplace in my office," she whispered in her girlfriend's ear.

  
She kissed her cheek again then walked away to her office. Ruby rolled her eyes with a smile. Leti was still watching TV, texting with Atticus and bragging about the giant TV. Ruby quietly made her way to Christina's office. She softly closed the door behind her. She'd been in the blonde's office a few times, mostly to drag Christina out of the room and away from work. There was a bulky mahogany desk in the middle of the room, always clustered with papers. Bookshelves lined the right wall, filled with all sorts of books. On the left side of the room was a fireplace with a couch and an armchair beside it, oriented toward the fire.

  
Christina was kneeling beside the fireplace, watching as the small flames grew bolder, eating away at the logs. She looked away from the fire and watch Ruby come in and sit on the couch.

  
"At least if your central heating fails too, we'll still have the fireplace."

  
Christina stayed by the fire another moment, letting its growing warmth sip into her bones. Then, she was on the couch, leaning against Ruby. Soon enough, Ruby was gently combing through her hair, the silence only perturbed by the crackling of the firewood. If shivers ran over Christina's back, it wasn't from the cold, but from the feeling of Ruby's fingers in her hair.

  
"All we need now is a bit of music," Christina sighed with content.

  
"Where did you leave your new record player?" Ruby asked, looking around the room.

  
Christina had gotten a record player specifically to listen to Ruby's Christmas gift. She began by lying to her girlfriend, telling her that she had a record player, but Ruby had very quickly seen through the lie.

  
"It's in the basement," Christina explained. "I like to listen to it when I work."

  
"Work on what?" Ruby asked.

  
Christina pursed her lips.

  
"It's a surprise, actually."

  
Ruby's fingers stilled in her hair.

  
"A surprise for me?"

  
Christina shifted slightly so she could look up into Ruby's dark eyes.

  
"It didn't start as one, but now, I think it will be."

  
Ruby stared at her as if she were trying to decipher the mysterious surprise Christina was hiding.

  
"Do I get a hint?"

  
Christina smirked and pushed herself just a little straighter, to be on equal height with Ruby.

  
"I don't know. What will you give me in exchange?"

  
Ruby smiled slyly.

  
"How about a kiss?"

  
"Just one? That'll buy you a letter."

  
Ruby placed her hand on Christina's shoulders, bringing her closer.

  
"Are you sure? How about..."

  
Their lips met, and Christina threaded her fingers through Ruby's hair. Soon enough, Ruby was leaning against the armrest, Christina in her lap. Ruby had sneaked her hands under Christina's turtleneck and tee-shirt, caressing warm skin hidden underneath. When they parted for air, Christina pulled her sweater off and let it tumble over the couch's backrest. She'd made pulling off a turtleneck effortless when Ruby was certain that she would have struggled. Faced with this warm expense of new skin, Ruby attacked Christina's neck, kissing down its length. When Christina tilted her head back, a sigh escaping her lips, Ruby placed an open-mouth kiss on the hollow of her neck, making the blonde tremble.

  
"Do I get a hint now?" Ruby asked.

  
Christina didn't answer, pulling her long-sleeve tee-shirt off instead.

  
"You'll have to take your sweater off for that."

  
Ruby smiled, amused by Christina's excuse to take her clothes off. She straightened and pulled off her woolen sweater. Thankfully, the air in the room was pleasant, and Christina was quick to lean back against her, keeping her warm. Christina began pulling Ruby's shirt out of her jeans as their lips met in a messy kiss. They were both growing impatient with the layers of clothes separating them. Christina rocked her hips against Ruby's thigh, her knee pushing between Ruby's legs.

  
Christina was pulling on Ruby's shirt, hoping Ruby would take it off. They heard a banging sound coming from outside the door. They both broke apart. It sounded as though someone had punched a door.

  
"Leti?" Ruby called.

  
No answer. Ruby gently pushed Christina off of her and stood up. Christina reached for the first garment she could find to cover herself, Ruby's sweater. It hung on her thin frame, and the wool itched against her skin, but Ruby was already opening the door, and there wasn't time to slip her shirt back on.

  
As they left the office, they found Leti standing near the basement door but pretending not to be interested in it. Ruby sighed with frustration.

  
"Leti."

  
"What? I just pinched my finger, okay?"

  
"Pinched your finger? How?"

  
Leti shrugged vaguely, but Ruby could see the hairpins sticking out of the door's lock. Somehow while trying to twist the needles in the lock, Leti had managed to pinch her fingers.

  
"We really can't leave you alone for two seconds, can we?" Ruby said as she crossed the room and pulled the pins out of the lock. "Just like a child."

  
Leti rolled her eyes.

  
"Oh come on, I just want to take a peek."

  
"Well, you won't. Now come on, I don't want to see you again anywhere near that door while we're staying here."

  
Leti grumbled, but she walked toward the living room. When she passed Christina, who was keeping an eye on her, arms crossed, she chuckled:

  
"Nice sweater."

  
Ruby glared at her sister, but Leti ignored her. Then, she sighed and turned to Christina.

  
"Thank God she didn't jam the lock with her stupid plan."

  
"Maybe if she had she would have stopped trying."

  
"I don't want you to have to call a locksmith just because she can't keep out of other people's business."

  
Christina shrugged. Ruby smiled at the sight of Christina in her sweater.

  
"Maybe you should put your sweater back, there's..."

  
Ruby passed a hand over the side of her neck, and Christina imitated her. When she felt irritated skin under her fingers. Hickeys had already begun to form.

  
"Maybe I should leave them out, just to see Leti cringe every time."

  
Ruby rolled her eyes.

* * *

Organizing dinner was a game of patience for Ruby. Christina wanted to help and Leti was forced to help. However, Christina was very slow to cut the bell peppers, and Leti would rather stare at her phone than make sure the chicken wasn't burning. When they sat down for dinner, Ruby considered it a miracle that nothing had burned.

  
After dinner, Leti made some microwave popcorn which Christina didn't even know they'd bought, and sat in the middle of the couch. Christina set out to do the dishes.

  
"You sure you don't want any help?" Ruby asked.

  
"No, it's only fair. And it's the only thing I'm remotely good at in the kitchen anyway."

  
Ruby chuckled and placed a kiss on Christina's cheek. She walked into the living room, where Leti was seating with her legs crossed and the bag of popcorn tugged between her legs. Ruby crossed her arms.

  
"Maybe you could have left us the couch and taken the armchair," she suggested.

  
Leti shook her head.

  
"No way. I want to keep the PDA to a bare minimum. That way, I can sit between you two, and I'll know you won't be making out in one corner of the couch while I'm trying to watch TV on the other."

  
Ruby sighed, but sat on Leti's left, taking a handful of popcorns out of the bowl. They watched TV silently, the sound only mildly perturbed by the running water in the sink on the other side of the house. A moment after it shut down, Christina arrived in the living room. She took one look at the couch, understood that she wouldn't be able to sit on it, and pushed the armchair to be closer to the couch. Leti rolled her eyes and grumbled as Christina sat in the armchair and extended her hand. Ruby took it, and they held hands over the armrest for the rest of the evening.

  
It was around eleven when they heard the first sign of the blizzard hitting. Despite all the closed windows, the wind seemed to howl through the house. Christina went to check at the nearest window. The air was colder there, the glass had begun frosting over as a small lump of snow formed against the outside edge. The streetlight in front of the house was barely visible, giving off just enough yellow light to see the heavy snowfall pilling up in the street.

  
"It's started," Christina said as she returned to the armchair.

  
Earlier in the evening Leti and Ruby had thrown a blanket over themselves, but as time passed, Leti had slowly been pulling the blanket toward herself.

  
"It's time to head to bed anyway," Ruby decided.

  
She stood from the couch as Leti pouted.

  
"Come on! Tomorrow's Sunday!"

  
"Well I'm tired, and you are not staying down there alone, not after what you pulled this afternoon."

  
Leti sighed but stood up, taking the blanket with her and going upstairs. Christina checked that all of the windows and the front door were secured before following Ruby upstairs. Leti was already in the guest bedroom, the door shut. Christina walked into her bedroom, ready to curl up into bed. As soon as she shut the door with her foot, however, she found Ruby standing very close to her, staring at her with dark, hungry eyes.

  
"How about we finish what we started earlier?" She whispered as she leaned in.

  
"With pleasure," Christina said with a smile before their lips met.

  
Christina found herself pinned against the door for a moment. She tried to get her hands under Ruby's sweater again, but her girlfriend wouldn't let her, pinning her hands to the door instead.

  
"Nah-ah," Ruby said between kisses. "It's because of you and your stupid basement door that I've been on edge all afternoon."

  
Christina moaned.

  
"I'm not the one who tried to pick the lock."

  
"You gave her Pandora's box. Of course, she was going to open it."

  
Ruby pulled on Christina's turtleneck, attacking the blonde's neck again, aggravating the hickeys already there. Christina took the opportunity to have her hands again to try and get Ruby's sweater off again, but Ruby pulled away, stopping Christina before she could.

  
"No touching until I'm done with you," Ruby decided.

  
"Better make it quick then," Christina said as she took off her sweater, with a bit less grace than before. "Because there's only so long I can hold back."

  
Ruby pulled Christina toward the bed. Christina struggled out of her pants and tee-shirt before laying down on the bed in her underwear. She leaned back on her elbows as Ruby stood by the bed, devouring her with her eyes. Christina brushed her hair somewhat back into place with a shake of the head.

  
"I know it's cold but you don't have to stay fully clothed. I'll warm you up," she promised with a smirk.

  
Ruby wanted to get that smirk off of Christina's face. She pulled her sweater off, throwing it on the ground with the rest of Christina's clothes, and crawled above Christina.

  
"There's only one way to shut you up, isn't there?"

  
"Shut me up. Make me scream your name. It's the same really."

  
Ruby silenced the blonde with another kiss. Christina threaded her fingers through Ruby's hair. Ruby's hands began to wander along the strap of Christina's bra, toward the clip. The light turned off.

  
The couple froze as the bedroom was plunged into darkness. A surprised scream echoed from down the hall. Only very faint silver light came through the frosted windows. Ruby slid away from Christina with a sigh.

  
"Power outage..."

  
"It's alright," Christina assured.

  
Indeed, a few moments later, the lights flickered back on.

  
"I have a backup generator."

  
"What's going on?" they heard from the hallway.

  
Ruby stood up from the bed and Christina quickly grabbed her bathrobe and slid it on quickly. It fell to her knees and covered enough that she didn't look like she was only wearing her underwear beneath. Ruby opened the door, and Leti was standing on the other side, in her pajamas.

  
"It's alright," Ruby assured. "Christina has a backup generator."

  
Leti rolled her eyes.

  
"Of course she does."

  
She glanced at the blonde and grimaced.

  
"Fine. But just so you know, I'm across the hall, reading."

  
Leti gave her sister one last look before she returned to the bedroom, and shut the door once more. Ruby sighed and closed their bedroom door. She chuckled.

  
"I swear, when it's not Leti, it's the storm."

  
"Well, anything bad that could have happened has already happened," Christina said as she sat on the bed. Ruby came to stand in front of her and pushed the bathrobe off of Christina's shoulder gently. The blonde's skin was cold under her hands. Christina looked up at her, biting her lower lip, waiting.

  
"I'm not going to let anything interrupt us again," Ruby said as she kneeled to be on Christina's level and capture her lips into a kiss.

* * *

Leti didn't usually wake up early, especially on Sundays. Sunday mornings she tended to stay in bed until she was sure Ruby wouldn't drag her to church. But this morning was different. Although she hadn't heard anything, she expected her sister and Christina had been up until very late, making the beast with two backs, as Shakespeare would put it. It was the perfect opportunity to go and see what was in the basement.

  
She wrapped herself in a thick sweater and walked as quietly as she could down the stairs. Despite the backup generators kicking in the night before, the air was still cold, and outside the blizzard still raged. Christina's bedroom door was closed. Leti winced and halted with every faint groan of the stairs she heard. Finally, she made it to the bottom. She approached the basement door. It suddenly flew open. Christina stepped out. She was wearing flannel pajama pants and a Harvard sweater. Their eyes met and Leti froze.

  
"Were you going to try and lock pick the door again?" Christina asked.

  
"No. Why were you even down there?" Leti asked back defensively, trying to sneak a peek, but all she could see were concrete stairs disappearing in the darkness.

  
"I was making sure the generator still had enough fuel. The electricity's still not back. Won't be until the storm has subsided, I'd bet."

  
Leti nodded and pretended to walk away casually.

  
"Cool. I guess I'll go back to bed then."

  
She turned around.

  
"Leti? Do you want to see what's down there?" Christina asked, arms crossed.

  
Leti looked at her with surprise.

  
"Really? Why?"

  
"Because no locksmith is going to come today if you jam the lock, and I need to have access to the generator."

  
Leti groaned.

  
"I wasn't going to try and pick the door."

  
Christina's look alone told her she didn't believe her.

  
"You're not dragging me to the basement to kill me?"

  
"As a matter of fact, I am. I have this set of butcher knives on the walls. Why else would I need a backup generator? It's to make sure the bodies stay frozen."

  
Christina had spoken in such a serious tone that for a second Leti wasn't certain it was a joke. But she laughed, and Christina's cold expression cracked into a small smile.

  
"Alright, fine," Leti said.

  
"Just, keep your hands to yourself," Christina said as they began walking down the stairs. "I don't want you to hurt yourself."

  
Leti nodded once. The basement was even colder than the rest of the house. Christina flipped the light on and white fluorescent light filled the concrete room. The basement was much larger than Leti had imagined. There was the generator in a corner, with exhaust pipes attached to it and taking all of the fumes and heat out of the house. Most of the basement was occupied by Christina's car, parked to face a concrete slope that led to the garage entrance. Beside it was the form of a car hidden under an old tarpaulin. When Leti peaked under, she saw that it was just the bare-bone chassis of an ancient car, with bits and pieces of the engine sticking out of the hood. All sorts of tools lay by the workbench against the wall. A record player was seating nearby.

  
"Wait, that's your big secret you've been hiding? The basement is also the garage?"

  
Christina stood by the bottom of the stairs, her hands in the pocket of her pants. She shook her head.

  
"There's no big secret. The only reason why I keep it lock all the time is that there are dangerous tools around here."

  
"And the car," Leti said, taking another glimpse at the skeleton of the vehicle.

  
"A 1956 Silver Cloud. I've been trying to build it up from scratch but it's taking more time than I thought."

  
"So you fix cars in your free time?"

  
"Is it so hard to believe?"

  
Leti laughed.

  
"Kinda. I mean, you always look so well put together and stuff. I wouldn't think that you're the kind of person to be a grease monkey."

  
"Well, the secret is out," Christina chuckled.

  
"Does Ruby knows?"

  
Christina shrugged.

  
"She knows I like to fix cars, but she doesn't know about this one. Actually, I've been thinking about giving her this one, once it's fixed. If I ever fix it."

  
"Sure. And tie a wedding ring to the wheel while you're at it."

  
Christina shook her head, not amused.

  
"Come on. It's too early to be in the basement."

  
They returned into the living room and Christina locked the door behind her, keeping the key in her hand. Leti was standing by the staircase upstairs when she called back Christina.

  
"I think it's pretty cool that you're not just a history nerd."

  
"I have other interests."

  
"Ruby doesn't count as an interest," Leti declared before she returned to her bedroom.

  
Christina reached the top of the staircase and sighed. She returned to her bedroom, closing the door softly behind her. She placed the key to the basement on a nearby shelf and returned to bed. Ruby was curled to the side under a pile of blankets. Christina slid against her, and Ruby's eyes cracked open.

  
"Where'd you go?" she mumbled.

  
"Basement. I went to check on the generator. And stopped Leti from picking the door again."

  
Ruby sighed tiredly.

  
"It's too early to deal with that."

  
"It's fine. I already took care of it. I showed her so she knows I'm not keeping a dead body down there."

  
Ruby wrapped her arms around Christina, bringing her closer, stealing her warmth.

  
"Why does she get to see in the basement?"

  
"If you want to check it out, the temperature there is around fifty..."

  
Ruby shivered at the thought alone.

  
"No thank you. Here is better."

  
"I thought so too."

  
Christina bundled against Ruby, holding her back. Outside the blizzard continued to rage on, and probably would all day. But in their bed, there was warmth and quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't been able to get out of my head the idea of Christina as a grease monkey since Sidders posted "she runs hot for me" so I thought I'd insert it here :)


End file.
